“Baby Shark” torture victim dies in Oklahoma County Jail…
Nearly one year after he sued the Oklahoma County Jail for being chained to a bar by jailors and forced to listen to the torturous kid's hit "Baby Shark" on repeat for hours on end, John Basco died inside the facility this past weekend after being reincarcerated on drug trafficking charges.
If you think it's odd that the Oklahoma Criminal Justice System put him in the same facility that he suing, well, you don't know the Oklahoma Criminal Justice System.
Basco is the 14th person to die in the Oklahoma County Jail this year – a sad, depressing, and very telling statistic that should motivate the producers of "Locked Up Abroad" to launch an Oklahoma version that profiles the lucky few who made it through our county's draconian incarceration death camp unscathed.
Here are details via The Oklahoman_:
An Oklahoma County jail inmate who was a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the county accusing employees of torturing him and other inmates with a loop of the "Baby Shark" song died Sunday at the jail, the 14th death at the troubled facility this year.
John Basco, 48, was found unresponsive in his cell shortly after 3:50 a.m. Sunday, according to a media release from jail officials. Officers attempted life-saving efforts until emergency responders arrived and continued attempts to resuscitate Basco, the statement read.
Uhm, calling the Oklahoma County Jail a "troubled" facility would be like calling "baby shark" an irritating song – it's a massive understatement.
Here's more:
Basco was pronounced dead at around 4:06 a.m., jail officials said. He had been booked into the jail Thursday on a drug trafficking complaint...
"One of the possibilities being investigated is that it was a drug overdose," Mark Opgrande, director of communications for the jail, told The Oklahoman.
Yep. "One of the possibilities" is that Basco died of a drug overdose just a week or so before his next court hearing. I wonder if Opgrande was as forthcoming in the "other" possibilities?
On one hand, a drug overdose is very believable. The guy was in jail for drug trafficking, and based on what we've read and seen in the news over the past 30 years, it's way easier for an inmate to get drugs in the Oklahoma County Jail than it is food, medicine, or even hot water.
Then again, I've watched way too many good and bad crime shows over the years to know that one of the easiest ways to murder a drug addict is to give them bad drugs that will kill them so that their death looks like an overdose.
I don't want to be the type of guy who pushes unfounded conspiracy theories on the Internet, but would anyone be surprised if Basco was slipped bad drugs to keep him silent and affect the lawsuit? This is the Oklahoma County Jail we're talking about. If anything, we should be surprised if that didn't happen!
Naturally, Basco's attorney is suspicious.
Cameron Spradling, Basco's attorney, said he found the circumstances of Basco's death "disturbing" and called for "all evidence (to be) preserved immediately" as the OSBI investigation unfolds.
"I'm really bothered by this," Spradling said. "One of the 'Baby Shark' victims is conveniently dead within three days of his arrival at the jail. How does that happen? District Attorney David Prater just lost one of his witnesses for the upcoming criminal trial. For me, this one does not pass the smell test."
Unless you like the smell of death, meth and raw sewage, I don't think anything about the Oklahoma County Jail passes the smell test. If I was Basco's attorney, I'd expect investigators to tell him all the evidence blew out a broken window while some inmates were escaping.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We'll keep you advised.
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